The Milwaukee Brewers will take on the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night. It's time to continue our MLB odds series and make a Brewers-Pirates prediction and pick.

 

These teams have had vastly different seasons. The Brewers came out of the gates hot, winning early and often and quickly claiming first place in the NL Central. They weathered a stretch of losing play and currently hold a solid record of 44-33. The same can't be said for the Pirates, who are a measly 31-45 on the year. Pittsburgh has been an easy matchup for just about every team they have faced, and that's likely to be the case here. Regardless of the records at play, this should be an entertaining matchup. Let's cut to the chase and get into the pick.

Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Brewers-Pirates MLB odds.

MLB Odds: Brewers-Pirates Odds

Milwaukee Brewers: -1.5 (-120)

Pittsburgh Pirates: +1.5 (+100)

Over: 7.5 (-114)

Under: 7.5 (-106)

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Why The Brewers Could Cover the Spread

Milwaukee has Corbin Burnes on the mound for this game. Burnes, the reigning Cy Young award winner, has been nothing short of fantastic this season. He's put up an insane 2.41 ERA and an equally impressive .92 WHIP. In his last outing, Burnes pitched nearly 8 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays and only allowed five hits and three runs. Here, he'll face a Pirates offense that is not nearly as good as Toronto's, as they rank in the bottom five teams in the MLB in batting average, slugging percentage, OBP, and OPS. Burnes should make fairly quick work of this Pittsburgh lineup.

Despite losing the first game of this series, the Brewers have all the momentum in the world as they come into this game. They've won five of their last six games, and they were red-hot at the plate throughout that stretch. Over those six games, Milwaukee never failed to score five runs or more. It's clear that they've found their stride at the plate, and that should carry over into this matchup.

Why The Pirates Could Cover the Spread

The Pirates will have one of their more reliable arms on the mound in this game. Roansy Contreras has been one of the few bright spots on this Pittsburgh team, earning himself a 2.76 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. He's also coming into this game on a bit of a hot streak, as he pitched ten innings over his last two outings combined and only allowed two runs in that span. The Brewers may be hot offensively, but they aren't a particularly good overall offensive team. Contreras has a chance of cooling them off in this game.

Home field advantage will certainly benefit the Pirates here. Contreras has been ridiculously good at home, posting a 0.48 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP in PNC Park. He also only allows a .174 batting average to his opponents at home. Making things even better is the fact that the Pirates earn much better offensive numbers on their home turf. Pittsburgh sees improvement in almost every single major batting statistic at home, and that should give their offense a fighting chance against Burnes.

Final Brewers-Pirates Prediction & Pick

Neither side of the spread looks great here. Instead, the under is the best pick on the board. The Pirates won't contribute much, if anything on offense, and Contreras can be counted on for a solid performance.

Final Brewers-Pirates Prediction & Pick: Under: 7.5 (-106)